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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28141599">Rust [suwa hiroto]</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AttackOnNacho/pseuds/AttackOnNacho'>AttackOnNacho</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>orange - 高野苺 | Takano Ichigo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU, F/M, Letters from Future, Major character death - Freeform, New story line, OC</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:47:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,491</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28141599</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AttackOnNacho/pseuds/AttackOnNacho</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Shibata Kaoru's only task was to keep her long time friend Suwa Hiroto and new friend Takamiya Naho together in her future, just like they were in the last. But, oh how the lines become so blurred when things begin to rust over...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Naruse Kakeru/Suwa Hiroto/Takamiya Naho, Naruse Kakeru/Takamiya Naho, Suwa Hiroto &amp; Takamiya Naho</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Rust [suwa hiroto]</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rust [suwa hiroto]<br/>                                                                                - ☆ ☆ ☆ -</p>
<p>Dear Kaoru, </p>
<p>I know how staid you can be, I know it’ll be hard for you to accept this message.  However, I am your future self and you do need to hear me out.  I’ve sent you this message in order to relieve you of future regrets I bear on my shoulders to this day; it’s heavy and hurts, so please listen.</p>
<p>It was all moving too fast. </p>
<p>Naruse Kakeru died on February 15th of the same year we all met him.  I can't remember what hurt more: letting his life slip by us, or the short amount of time we had with that life.  We didn't talk much, but I wish I had made more of an effort to keep him from his demons.  </p>
<p>You need to save him, for yourself, for everyone, for Kakeru.  Save Kakeru.</p>
<p>I know a few things about him now that I didn't realize back them, so consider them a gift from the future:<br/>1. Kakeru favors the soft-spoken type, but don’t let that stop you from talking to him.  <br/>2. No matter how convincing his facade is, Kakeru is not okay.  He is going to hurt you guys; some of it will be unintentional, some of it will be calculated. <br/>3. Kakeru needs you guys to be happy. </p>
<p>The others are going to give it all trying to save Kakeru - I've read portions of their letters. We don't need six of the same letters sent back, so I'll give you another task. It's going to be hard for you, considering the way our goal may stray from the others' ideal actions, but we've always been that way (I'm still that way to this day). I'm not doing this to hurt Kakeru - you know that - I only want the others to be happy. Looking back, I realize I caused more trouble than I should've for everyone, and I wish I hadn't.  </p>
<p>This is the future where Suwa and Naho get married.  I want you to keep it that way. They're good for each other.  Please, let Suwa be happy. I don't want him to resent you too.  Even if he hates you, I want you to try. He needs to go to her, and I'm sure if Naho's doing her part, he'll be more hesitant this time around.  The way you argue with him - just be mindful of what you say. Suwa is going through a lot right now.  I want you to live in a world where our friends are together and happy, no matter the penalty it inflicts on us. </p>
<p>There will always be other guys. You will never get other friends, ones that know you like that back of your own hand, ones that have seen the sun rise and set with you, ones that would be willing to turn back time for you if they could.  You will never get another Suwa.  </p>
<p>Suwa and Naho need each other, in my future and in yours. Please, don't repel the both of them like I did back in my high school days.  Those two click, and I regret how I'd pull them apart and rip their romance to shreds while their eyes were averted elsewhere.  It was always hard for me to support Naho, back then. I never acknowledged how hard it must've been for her. To like Kakeru, well, and to feel like the weight of his life slipped off her shoulders after he died - it had to have been painful. I was probably the one Kakeru talked to least because I never made an effort. I know how you feel for Suwa, I know it all too well. Flirting with him was the best, but of course, no matter how long he looked at me, he only really had eyes for Naho.</p>
<p>You love them both - I know that feeling all too well.  This is what I believe is best for the both of them.  Kakeru might hurt her, but I know Suwa won't.</p>
<p>Assuming you trust me enough, things should go fine.  Just remember to keep it light, and I believe you'll be fine.  Damn, all this looking back...</p>
<p>- ☆ ☆ ☆ -</p>
<p>The thinning, the cracking, the rusting - it was small at first.  </p>
<p>"Naho maybe you should go to New Years with Suwa.  I can hang with Kakeru that night instead, since it looks like you guys are going to fight."</p>
<p>This is the future where Suwa and Naho get married.</p>
<p>Their letters all had the same purpose, spoken through different words and mouths, addressed to different residences and different people, but nonetheless, the same message resonated in each syllable printed on the papers.  Azu’s i’s dotted with hearts over dainty pink stationary carried the message; Hagita’s scatterbrained scrawling got the point across too.  The six existed on the same wavelength, everything they did solely to achieve the purpose of the letters which defied time:</p>
<p>You need to save him, for yourself, for everyone, for Kakeru. Save Kakeru.</p>
<p>Although they all wanted to save Kakeru, Shibata Kaoru’s situation was a bit more complicated.  </p>
<p>“Heh??” remarked Azu, eyes wide with wonder, the type that came complete with a look of scrutiny.  She turned her body to completely face Kaoru, hands on her hips and leaning in, as if she could see where the other girl was coming from just by getting a closer look.  “Are you trying to ruin Naho’s date with Kakeru?”</p>
<p>Kaoru stepped back, rigid.  However, her composure wasn’t as easy to shake back then, the girl throwing a teasing look back at the girl who’d invaded her space so easily.  “Oh?  Why would I want to ruin our dear friends’ love fest?  I’m just pointing the obvious out here.  If Naho is going to make things worse with Kakeru that night, why not just go with Suwa and play it safe?”  The shrug Kaoru followed her bold statement with ticked off the two girls facing her.  </p>
<p>Azu poked a finger harshly into Kaoru’s chest, slightly pushing her back in the process.  “You make it sound like it’s all Naho’s fault!”  </p>
<p>“I thought we made it clear we were all on Naho’s side here,” interjected Takako, subjecting the smirking brunette to her fierce glare.  Though she stood apart from the Azu and Kaoru, her gaze made it feel as though they’d crawled over to her.  </p>
<p>“I am!  I’ll I’m saying is - ”</p>
<p>Suwa, witnessing the tension between the two with the strongest wills in the group, approached the girls, leaving Naho’s side.  Arms open, figuratively and literally, the boy pleaded lightly, “Girls, can we not do this?”  He threw a quick glance at the scowling girl he’d met in elementary school all those years ago.  “I think Naho should go and have a good time with Kakeru.  I’m…” the boy trailed off, his eyes fixated on his shoes and the undone laces, “…not going this year.”<br/>Kaoru didn’t need to throw a glance at the green eyed and quivering girl across the hall from her to know what was keeping Suwa from a night out with the group.  For the sake of the boy she loved with everything she had, the brunette slapped her hand into his, gripping it with the same strength as the resolve which fueled her words: “You have to go, Suwa.  I don’t care who you go with, but you have to be there with us on New Years!”  </p>
<p>Green eyes shook with every word the brunette uttered from a distance, the groups resident sweetheart and soft speaker unable to withstand the shockwaves of emotion rolling off Kaoru.  Naho and Kaoru had never been the best of friends; it was hard, when her mouth was so loud and she was always hanging around Suwa.  However, in that moment, the green eyed girl couldn’t help but admire her fellow brunette’s tenacity, longing for a voice of the sorts to speak to Kakeru with.  </p>
<p>Kaoru, on the other hand, couldn’t stop herself from harboring resentment to a degree for the fragile looking girl she’d met a year ago.  She didn’t know Naho all that well – softball, housework, and orange were the first things that came to her mind - but she did know one thing so concrete it paved the way for various future feelings Kaoru had about her: Naho had Suwa wrapped around her finger.  </p>
<p>Those two click, and I regret how I'd pull them apart and rip their romance to shreds while their eyes were averted elsewhere.</p>
<p>“Naho will be fine without me.  I believe in her.”</p>
<p>“It doesn’t matter if we believe or not, Suwa!  It’s happened once and it can happen again!”  </p>
<p>“I’ll only get in the way, Kaoru.  I’m not going, and that’s final.”  </p>
<p>Agony was all she could see in Suwa’s toothy smile; agony was all she could feel while breaking her own heart to ensure the safety of his.  Kaoru twitched, the sensation of the skin of his palm enveloped in hers suddenly repulsive, prompting her to drop his hand.  She looked up, expecting to meet his eyes, to gauge the boy’s feelings about the ordeal, and yet, when she raised her chocolate carved eyes up, up, up, to catch his, Kaoru found Suwa’s eyes glued to the girl behind her.</p>
<p>Since when did we disagree like this?  I thought…when did you begin to look over me?  </p>
<p>Naho shook like a leaf in the face of a wind, as she announced, managing to hold Suwa’s gaze undeniably, “I’ll support whatever you do, Suwa!  Don’t worry about me!”</p>
<p>Suwa and Naho need each other, in my future and in yours.</p>
<p>Hagita approached the group, placing a hand on Kaoru’s and Suwa’s tensed shoulders, solemnly proclaiming, “All I’m going to say is that…I don’t wanna be the only guy there!”</p>
<p>Snorting out a laugh, Kaoru choked out, “Hagita, you sure fooled me with how girly you act!”</p>
<p>“Hey!”  A playful shoved knocked Kaoru into Azu, who squealed as she brought the girl down with her.  Takako and Naho couldn’t help but laugh at the scene, and Suwa whipped out a bashful chuckle to round it all out.</p>
<p>To lighten the mood.  That was Shibata Kaoru’s role, regardless of how excruciating the rot and rust festering on the hinges of her mouth, in the valves of her heart became.</p>
<p>- ☆ ☆ ☆ -</p>
<p>It was all moving too fast.</p>
<p>"Oh, Kaoru.  What're you doing here?"</p>
<p>"Getting you to stop being an idiot." </p>
<p>She was physically in pain being at his door, which was quite ironic, really.  It wasn't because she was missing the festival or anything; those memories were replaceable.  The festival wasn't for her that year - it was for Suwa and Naho. </p>
<p>Please, let Suwa be happy.  I don't want him to resent you too.</p>
<p>Kaoru went on her tip toes and shook the boy, words not really being her strong suit.  Nevertheless, she still spoke: "You know we need her to be happy.  How are we gonna save Kakeru if Naho's a mess, brainiac?"  To lighten the mood.  That was Shibata Kaoru's job, in this life, the last, and probably the next one too.  Although it pained her to send Suwa into the arms of another girl, one she knew loved another, one Kaoru knew was destroying Suwa, she did it, for the sake of Kakeru, the boy she barely talked to. </p>
<p>Even if he hates you, I want you to try. He needs to go to her, and I'm sure if Naho's doing her part, he'll be more hesitant this time around.</p>
<p>No - she did it for the sake of her friends. </p>
<p>"I'll only get in the way of them.  You saw the letters."</p>
<p>"It's still your life, Suwa!  Regretting things is only human.  You can't get rid of them all." </p>
<p>"Are you saying helping Kakeru will all be for naught?"</p>
<p>The way you argue with him...be mindful of what you say. Suwa is going through a lot right now.</p>
<p>"I'm saying," Kaoru paused, sending she was on shaky ground with the scowling boy across from her.  "I'm saying that she still is going to need someone right now.  Takako and Azu, they love her, but it has to be you.  You're the one who needs to pull her out of her pain tonight." </p>
<p>Laughter pierced the tense air between the two.  Suwa, obnoxious and big, laughed over Kaoru's frown, pulling her hands off of his frame.  He remarked, a chill in his voice as he looked over the girl, "Wouldn't you just love her out of the way?  I wouldn't put it past you to mess with mine and Naho's future!  What, do you want us to fight too?" </p>
<p>"That's not-"</p>
<p>I want you to live in a world where our friends are together and happy, no matter the penalty it inflicts on us.</p>
<p>Suwa looked over the rigid girl before him, not at her, but over her. "Kaoru.  You can't always be selfish.  I'll look out for Naho and the others as much as I can.  Don't get in my way."</p>
<p>There will always be other guys. You will never get other friends, ones that know you like that back of your own hand, ones that have seen the sun rise and set with you, ones that would be willing to turn back time for you if they could. </p>
<p>The door was slammed in Kaoru's face.  The door was slammed on the girl who tried to preserve the future.</p>
<p>You will never get another Suwa.</p>
<p>She dropped her letter on the mat outside his door. </p>
<p>Suwa and Naho need each other, in my future and in yours. Please, don't repel the both of them like I did back in my high school days.</p>
<p>Before the trembling girl made a move to leave, she gave one dejected look to the envelope that had fallen through her fingers, face open onto the scuffed-up doormat where all was lost. The smooth cream paper hit the dirty floor of an earth it wasn't from, spilling the guts of future Kaoru out on Suwa's doorstep for all to see. That was just like her, wasn't it? - to ruin a future in which she wasn't a part.</p>
<p>Kakeru might hurt her, but I know Suwa won't.</p>
<p>It was Kaoru's job to lighten the mood, and in this life she failed.  Each step she took away from his door cut the soles of her feet, hurting her more than staying would've, regardless of the recalcitrant tears gushing from soulful origins.  Pride, however, was all the girl could hold onto in the face of the fun-loving boy she knew all too well, and so Kaoru did.  She walked away, chewing on her lip in a tremulous manner and choking on words she'd have to keep lodged between vocal cords for the sake of a thinning friendship. </p>
<p>Suwa had rusted at Kaoru's steely smiles; the muscles in her face didn't operate as they used to.</p>
<p>...no matter how long he looked at me, he only really had eyes for Naho.</p>
<p>- ☆ ☆ ☆ -</p>
<p>“Kakeru!  KAKERU!...Wait a minute!”</p>
<p>“Stop…”</p>
<p>“Kakeru, listen to me!”</p>
<p>“Just leave me ALONE!”</p>
<p>“I won’t stand by as you tear yourself apart!  You can’t keep going on this way, hurting yourself, hurting Naho.  You can’t!”</p>
<p>“I know I’m hurting her, but I can’t see a world where I don’t.  I can’t…”</p>
<p>“We hurt, and when we do, we hurt others!  It’s only human, Kakeru.  It’s only human.”</p>
<p>“Then maybe, Kaoru, I don’t want to be human anymore.”</p>
<p>“…Don’t say that!”</p>
<p>“Just…just take care of her for me.”</p>
<p>“KAKERU!  KAKERU!  DON’T WALK AWAY!” </p>
<p>- ☆ ☆ ☆ -</p>
<p>It was Kaoru opening the door this time, Suwa knocking from the other side.  February was cold, very cold.  The boy's teeth were chattering, his heart was blue, an odd shade for the boy who rose with the sun, but Kaoru didn't invite him in. In that moment, she was more frigid than he ever could've expected.</p>
<p>"What is it?" </p>
<p>He looked to the side, shuffling closer to the doorway.  Quietly, Suwa asked, "Can I come in?"</p>
<p>She didn't falter when she said, "No."</p>
<p>"I expected as much."</p>
<p>"It seems you couldn't make any use of my letter."  Kaoru thought back to the sixteenth, the day Azu called her and informed her of everything, the crash, the death.  She figured as much, seeing how hesitant Naho became after her fight with Kakeru, and how distant Suwa became, drowning in guilts and regrets galore, ones that Kaoru had warned him about. Of course, his agony wasn't for Kaoru. The pain was all for Naho's sake. Kaoru knew it would happen. </p>
<p>Suwa smiled sadly, saying, "I should've listened to you, that night."</p>
<p>"Is that all you came to tell me?"</p>
<p>"I-I...I'm sorry."</p>
<p>"Oh, okay.  Thanks."</p>
<p>"Look I-"</p>
<p>"You what?" interjected Kaoru.  She kept a steely face, the only thing that stood between her and tears which had already been cried several times over. "There's nothing for you to say that I didn't try to tell you on New Year's Eve." </p>
<p>Mouth clamped shut and lips as dry as a sheet, Suwa blanched, paler than the ice beneath his feet.  "I - "</p>
<p>"NO! I went to Naho that night. I did!  You know what she did?" A humorless laugh escaped Kaoru's lips before she recounted, harshly, "She asked me to go after him! I couldn't...I couldn't help her in any way but to...to go after Kakeru."</p>
<p>"..."</p>
<p>"You read my letter. You know we were supposed to comfort her together. That was the only way it could've worked but - "</p>
<p>"BUT I WAS STUPID! I know!" yelled out Suwa, screwed up eyes trained on the doormat before the girl's feet, fists all balled up. "I was stupid."<br/>A moment of silence passed.</p>
<p>Suwa's understatement of the unsaid forced Kaoru to move, the girl harshly stepping forward and slamming her door behind the both of them. They stood, Kaoru's nose not an inch away from Suwa's, the pained girl managing to whisper sentiments of ululation, "You chose to see the worst in me. You chose that. You only see the best in her!  I could've told you all my suspicions of why she'd still be crying that night, but I was trying not to break you!" The tears began to pour, despite the pleads her eyes screamed. "YOU!  It was all for y-you..."  The tears weren't sobs, not like the ones from that dark New Year's night; they were melancholy and sparkling this time around, painting her features in hues of azure instead of the redness which usually came with crying.  No fervent blush on Kaoru's cheeks; no bloodshot eyes, irritated by twinges of guilt and sparks of passion. </p>
<p>She was all blue, but somehow, sadness never looked better than when Kaoru wore it that February day. </p>
<p>For a while, the girl couldn't speak, choking up on the tears she thought she could've swallowed. Kaoru seldom envisioned pain, preferring to look for hope and the good that could be, and yet, she hadn't thought that she'd be inflicted with the worst pain of her life by the hands of her Suwa. Her Suwa. He was the boy her parents loved like their own son! Messy rust colored hair, a smile that had underclassmen tailing him through the halls, a laugh that kept an entire friend group glued together! The boy sure kept Kaoru together, delivering her from evils on the daily, while the girl would defend him against others relentlessly, always siding with him.</p>
<p>Kaoru always sided with him.</p>
<p>Her shoulders were trembling again, no matter that she was the one with the upper hand in this situation. What good was an upper hand when their friend was dead and her heart had been just a victim of the cross fire? </p>
<p>Kaoru always sided with him.  </p>
<p>And yet, as every pocket of her tenuous being was emptied by the boy she'd known since elementary, the boy who always led the way, the boy that crushed and released her heart over and over, a makeshift form of beating Kaoru had become accustomed to, Suwa smiled at her.  Wide, grand, bountiful - he never kept it short and sweet whenever curving his lips upward.  His teeth hadn't grown since his baby ones were knocked out (half by hockey season every winter, half by rough housing with the boys at recess) but they looked different to Kaoru every time she saw them.  She always admired that about Suwa - his ability to put on a showy smile at a moment's notice and to have the only tell be the way his teeth aligned; sometimes gleaming, other times clenched. </p>
<p>Although his smile said it all, Suwa still spoke.  "I know, Kaoru.  I know."</p>
<p>With those words, an air of understanding rushed between the two, dead leaves on the ground rustling and a new chill settling in the space surrounding them.  Above Kaoru's head, between Suwa's feet - it didn't matter.  They understood, and it was impossible to ignore the truth, regardless of how far they tried to look away. All that could be seen was the pervasive snow of a new year and the mixed signals they'd missed over the years.</p>
<p>Thinned, thinned, snapping.</p>
<p>Kaoru's mouth felt rusty, chained to the emotions and stale words paralyzing her voice.  First, she mouthed the words, then she finally uttered, forcing Suwa's smoldering expression of pain to face her own mutilated one, "You...you always knew, huh?  It just...didn't matter."</p>
<p>"I can't lie to you, Kaoru.  I love you too much to - "</p>
<p>"Why would you say that to me right now?" Steel sorrow was woven into every word Kaoru forced out, her body wracked with a pain ten years in the making.  "You don't tell a girl you're shooting down that you love her!"</p>
<p>She was all blue, the hottest part of a fire, the saddest part of a song.</p>
<p>Snow began to fall, smothering the words Kaoru cried out and set aflame with tears of gasoline. Sparks spat by the aching girl who'd failed to keep things light were immediately extinguished by the icy crystals she could've avoided by retreating inside. To back down would be futile, as the games of guerilla warfare and obvious secrets was over, over and raining down on the two in heaps of snow.</p>
<p>Through the blinding whites, Suwa, still big and grand, reached a hand out to the girl he'd known for ten years, departing from the surface level smiles and apologies. He had a way with words, molding them into something of gentle strength that day. When Kaoru finally grabbed his hand, allowing his expansive fingers to envelop hers, he muttered, "Kaoru. I'm always going to love you, even if it's not in the way you want me to. You can't shoot down the type of love I have for you because it's forever." The boy took a breath pulling the tear stained girl in to his chest, close enough to hear the heart she'd pined after for so many years. "This isn't something that'll corrode, or rust away. It's here, and it's true."</p>
<p>This is the future where Suwa and Naho get married. I want you to keep it that way.</p>
<p>She wouldn't - no, couldn't - look Suwa, Kaoru choosing to focus on the clouds of breath expelled with every breath. Steam, the aftermath of a blaze, was what she was releasing, fiery words of hurt fizzling out into nothing more than air, air that melded with the truths they'd uttered not five minutes prior. Leveled heads were the only ones which succeeded, and so, Kaoru, gazing at her stagnant breath, could only say, "You better treat Naho right, or I'll slash your bike's tires, Suwa."</p>
<p>"Hey, hey! So mean!" teased the boy, looking over the girl whose frame he was hugging to meet the sky with his eyes. "Well, I'm glad that I have someone like you to keep me in check, Kaoru."</p>
<p>You will never get another Suwa.</p>
<p>Every fiber in the girl's being was cracked and shattering, but it wasn't like Kaoru to let herself be overly vulnerable. Thus, she put up a quivering smile, shoving Suwa off her playfully and returning to her doorstep. Kaoru waved him off, off into the all-consuming snow of February, and that was that.</p>
<p>Kaoru, pulling at the lips she'd forced into a smile for his sake, began slapping her face, once, twice, then over and over, the damning rhythm overshadowing the sounds of her fractured heart. Suwa had crushed it again, this time leaving it a pile of torn muscle and directionless blood, aware of what he'd done. Conscious of her reality, Kaoru slapped her face, hoping she could call her self mistaken, yearning for some other outcome -</p>
<p>thump. Slap. CRACK.  It was all for you.</p>
<p>But what would she yearn for? What could she desire that didn't trample across the regrets of her future self? Why did she have to be the one hurting at the end of the day? Why Kaoru, why her, why her, why -</p>
<p>Is this what Kakeru felt like?</p>
<p>Kaoru yearned for the day where she would return to steel, where rust and blues were just other colors to her.  When did she become such a soft speaker?  Where did the corrosion, the cracking, the rusting – where did it all begin?</p>
<p>After one final slap to her cheeks, eyes trained on the door she didn't slam.  Kaoru muttered, so as not to alert those in the household who were not meant to hear, "Seems like we struck out this time, even with the letters."</p>
<p>The girl had never made it to the end of hers, choosing to read it portion by portion before dropping it on the doorstep of boy she loved too much that New Year's Eve. It was a pity all that emotion and urgency had been fated to end up in Suwa's desk drawer, stiff with the gasoline tears of the girl he wasn't in love with, celebrated as a promise of his future with Naho.  He prayed on it nightly, careful to keep the crinkled paper away from any open flames.  </p>
<p>Kaoru would never know that.  </p>
<p>- ☆ ☆ ☆ -</p>
<p>It's worth it in the long run, trust me.  Tears dry and smiles wake back up eventually.  The world is so wide, Kaoru, and there will be so many things that surprise you, upset you, enlighten you - humans are naturally impressionable.  Regardless of the outcome, you are still you, the you that was never a soft speaker and that smiled so others could too - I just want you to remember this because it's what I most often lose sight of when I reminisce about our high school days.  <br/>I'll leave you with a couple of words to get you going on your quest to save Kakeru: to feel is human; to react is brave.</p>
<p>P.S. Naho and Suwa's kid is so cute!  You won't regret this, Kaoru!</p>
<p>Do your best!</p>
<p>Signing off,<br/>Shibata Kaoru (26)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hey hey hey guys! first story on AO3!  my main is wattpad but I'm moving over here so let me know what you think!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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